I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to bed liner assemblies for lining the bed surface of the bed portion of pickup trucks, vans and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a bed liner assembly for bed surfaces where the assembly is removably attachable and may be conveniently adjusted for its overall dimensions of width and length by cutting along preselected perforations.
II. Description of the Relevant Art
The universal appeal of multi-functional vehicles such as pickup trucks is old and well established. Pickup trucks have been proven successes ever since their introduction at the beginning of the 20th century. In one of their earliest and most popular embodiments, the Ford Model "T" could be purchased as a pickup-style vehicle, with the pickup bed being interchangeable with the so-called "turtle deck".
The utility of such vehicles has always been popular on the farm, for example, and later, the pickup-style vehicle found a home in modern times also in the city. Pickup truck style vehicles are attractive mostly because they provide the user with a significant amount of cargo space, while at the same time providing a comfortable driving environment. As presently known, pickup style trucks reflect all of the well-known comforts of the more conventional passenger car.
Within the last twenty years, a similar growth in popularity of vehicles known as cargo vans has also occurred. The cargo van offers many of the advantages of the pickup truck, but has a further advantage in that the cargo area is enclosed and, therefore, not exposed to the elements.
Long gone are the times that the pickup truck or van have application only toward the movement of heavy materials such as lumber, block, old auto parts and the like. Present pickup trucks may be fitted with attractive and comfortable caps over the bed portion to thereby enclose the bed portion. In this way, both pickup trucks and vans may be used for more conventional vehicle living space, and very often it is found desirable to have such spaces fitted for sleeping and the like.
It naturally follows that owners of pickup trucks and vans have long sought convenient ways of covering up the bed surface of the bed portion to thereby provide both aesthetic attractiveness and warmth. To accomplish this, sections of carpet have been cut to fit into the bed portion and to thereby cover more or less the bed surface. A foam material has been likewise cut to fit into the vehicle bed.
However, this approach suffers from at least three inherent difficulties.
First, only the most careful and patient worker can provide the proper cutting of the pad or carpet and fitting of the pad or carpet to the bed surface. This difficulty arises from the fact that both carpeting and padding is somewhat difficult to cut and in most "do it yourself" approaches, the borders and edges typically are uneven and are incapable of being properly fitted to the surfaces applied.
Second, there is no convenient or practical method by which the pad may be removably attached to the bed surface. Typically, the pickup truck or van owner does not necessarily want to limit the use of the bed surface to only human application. In other words, the pickup truck or van owner may prefer to remove the bed pad when the vehicle is used for heavy or dirty work, and to replace the pad when the vehicle is used for a purely human environment. To simply lay the pad in, for example, the bed portion of a pickup truck without having a means of attaching the pad to the bed surface would result in the pad being able to fly out of the bed portion when the vehicle is at highway speed. Similarly, a pad which is incapable of being fixed to the bed surface results in undesirable shifting or movement of the pad whether the pad is used in the bed portion of a pickup truck or the van.
Third, the conventional approach to supplying pad segments into the bed portion of a vehicle results in an uneven surface, as the bed surface of the bed portion itself is conventionally uneven, being provided with a series of spaced apart parallel corrugations which considerably improve the structural integrity of the bed portion. When the user fits a pad onto this uneven terrain, the resulting pad surface is also similarily uneven. When a carpet is applied in addition to or in lieu thereof, the same result is known.
Accordingly, present approaches to providing bed pads and the like to the bed surface of the bed portion of a pickup truck or a van have failed to provide a fully practical and even pad while similarly failing to provide a pad which fits properly.